Maybe because Nationwide cashed in like mad on its K-Fed pre-Super Bowl ad hype last year, everybody's releasing their spots before the drop.

We don't like the idea of opening our presents before Christmas day (which is what watching a Super Bowl ad a week in advance is like), but in some cases an early debut is a good thing.

That's the case with Pepsi's Bob's House, a Super Bowl spot by BBDO for its Enable campaign that composes a deaf world we're invited to watch from the sidelines. A silent ad is jarring, but it's weirder still to be passive observers of a community whose jokes we don't get.

Neat switcharoo on the minority experience. Can't wait to see what kind of response this generates on Super Bowl Sunday.

See the making-of, which, thankfully, isn't the usual self-congratulating "how I made my baby" swill.

If the internet has taught college kids anything, it's that panhandling is a totally stigma-free sport.

With that in mind, Campus Food -- a network of college restaurants that let students order online -- has launched a Facebook app called Food Friendzy. The pitch: "Free food for poor college kids nationwide!" The premise: win free food by playing online games and sharing the app with friends.

Ugh. Whatever happened to the glory days of quiet submissiveness to four years of Ramen? There's nothing wrong with Ramen.

But it doesn't matter what we think, because it marches on for reasons beyond the realms of human understanding. You really can get people to buy crap products if you promise X percent of $X will "support four months" of antiretroviral medication to an unspecified number of AIDS patients somewhere in Africa.

You'd never know it from watching the ad but, thankfully, someone was kind enough to tell us its a recruitment ad for the UK charity line, Samaritans. Created by Lunar BBDO, the on minute video is a lush representation of, apparently, sound waves heard while on the telephone. At least that's what we got out of it. Anyone else care to comment?

In another nod to the "invisible" cause of domestic abuse and violence against women, this National Center for Domestic Violence commercial highlights the fact that, in the U.K., 330,000 injuries per year are blamed on kitchen cupboard doors.

While it's certain these domestic violence campiagns bring to light this terrible issue, it's not so clear they do anything to stop the violence. In fact, a current or potential abuser viewing this commercial now has yet another excuse to use when explaining away the situation.

We're not really sure who Rascal Flatts is. But they think milk rocks, and that's cool with us.

"Milk Rocks" is a contest that will be promoted online and on milk cartons nationwide, as well as on school lunchroom posters. Impressions are expected to hit one billion.

Oh, yeah. The terms of the contest: starting March 1, fans can hit milkrocks.com and upload videos of themselves karaoke-slaughtering a Rascal Flatts song of their choice. The winner gets a private meet-and-greet, a webcast concert with the band, and a meeting with a Lyric Street Records A&R rep.

The human brain is an amazing thing. It does so many complex things with complete ease. Luckily, one of the things it does is filter out, according to some, is the up to 5,000 advertising messages a city dweller sees each day. This is a very good thing. Because if the brain weren't able to filter out the incessant onslaught of advertising and consciously processed each of those 5,000 daily messages, it would explode quickly sending the owner of that brain to the nearest mental institution.

In some respects, advertising is a never ending cycle of idiocy. People ignore ads so marketers just create more. People block ads so marketers just come up with more methods to circumvent that blockage (just wait until you see the DVR-proof side and bottom bar ads the nets will soon implement).